USAF C-17 transport from Vandenburg Air Force Base, in California, has left for Japan loaded with 17 tons of boric acid.

The boric acid is from the stock pile at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California.  It’s to be used on the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

People living in parts of Fukushima Prefecture have been told not to drink tap water.  Japanese officials say the radiation levels in the water are now higher that government safety limits.

The confusion comes from Japanese officials also saying that there is no immediate health risk from drinking the water.

Not only have the agriculture industry, in north east Honshu, been hit by a natural disaster, they are suffering from the nuclear disaster as well.

Many farm fields were wiped out by the tsunami.  Because sea walls are destroyed, and land has actually sunk, the coastal areas could be under water for a time, especially during high tide. Now dairy and produce products are turning out to be contaminated with radiation.

Even though the Japanese government says they have stopped any shipments of such food, and that the levels are not harmful, shoppers have made it clear they won’t buy the stuff: “It’s a little hard to say this, but I won’t buy vegetables from Fukushima and that area,” said shopper Yukihiro Sato, at a Tokyo supermarket.

It’s also affecting Japan’s fishing industry, so far the winds have been blowing the radiation particles out over the Pacific Ocean.

In the immediate term Japanese food producers are benefiting as shoppers turn to their products, out of fear.  But, it will eventual stress the Japanese food industry.  Japan will have to increase imports of food from other countries.

This will add to what the United Nations said, earlier this year, is a growing food “supply” problem.  The supply problems is due to a combination of climate change and social unrest.  Some countries are experiencing long droughts, reducing crop production.  Other countries are experiencing flooding which destroys farm land.  Many countries in Asia experience both climactic conditions.  On top of that, social unrest, in Africa, Middle East (aka West Asia) and even Mexico (drug war) are causing the same end result, reduced crop production as well as interruption in supply.

Supply is the main concern of the UN because there are countries that have excess food but for many reasons, including the way the commodities markets work, the food is not being equally distributed around the world.

The food supply problem will have a bad result for consumers all over the world, prices will continue to go up.

Japanese Self Defense Forces Combat Nuclear Biological Chemical monitoring teams have been monitoring radiation levels to help protect workers fighting the nuclear disaster.

The military NBC units have been using lead suits, that weigh 48 pounds, and special armored cars that are equipped with NBC monitoring gear.  They are trying to make sure workers are rotated in and out of the plant for short time periods because of high radiation levels.

Most developed countries have NBC units in their military. Mainly because they also have WMDs, and have planned for their use on the battlefield.  Military NBC units can be used in a secondary role in case of something like what is happening in Japan.  I hope budget cutting here in the U.S. hasn’t affected our military NBC units.

Workers evacuated from Fukushima Daiichi immediately after the 9.0 quake/tsunami, say the reactors were already in trouble.

One worker said Reactor 1 suffered a hydrogen explosion the day after the tsunami.  He saw white smoke coming from reactor 1 while the tsunami swept by.  He also said because reactors were undergoing maintenance they were more susceptible to damage by the tsunami.

Fears of radiation contamination in fish supplies has Sushi restaurants   dropping fresh fish from their menus.

So far, the prevailing winds have been blowing radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, out over the Pacific Ocean, prompting concerns by those who rely on fish from the ocean.

Those concerns are also being expressed by the governments of South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Singapore and the Philippines.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration claims it’s monitoring Japanese food for contamination.